Google Gets Quake II Running In HTML5

Dr Herbert West writes "A trio of Google engineers have ported id Software's gib-filled first-person shooter Quake II to browsers — you know, for kicks — as a way to show just what HTML5-compatible web browsers are capable of. According to the developers, 'We started with the existing Jake2 Java port of the Quake II engine, then used the Google Web Toolkit (along with WebGL, WebSockets, and a lot of refactoring) to cross-compile it into JavaScript.' More details are available on one developer's blog, and installation instructions have been posted as well."

Comments

Why do I have to install something for a browser

[BitZtream]

based game?

It has installation instructions ... with things I have to install to get it to work ...

Uhm, so if I'm going to install shit, then its not really the browser doing it, its a plugin or addin or what have you.

Don't tell me how kickass your HTML5 app is when it won't work out of the box in my HTML5 capable browser. Flash games aren't browser games. Anything that requires me to install something other than the browser fails.

I can make browser plugins that will run quake far more efficiently than this crap with a lot less work. I realize what google was trying to accomplish, but if anything this just makes me fear that the awesomeness that is supposed to be HTML5 is not really any different than anything we have today.